Chapter 29: Mana Bless the Dungeon Lords
As Freya was still praising Jūyon, it was Aria who pulled her back to reality.
"Now, which problem should we solve first?"
Freya gently set the little fox back down, and she scampered off at once, most likely to go rest with the other Mycofoxes after all the work she’d put in over the past day. Then Freya’s expression turned serious again.
But before she could speak, Naïa got there first.
"The way I see it, we need to understand what lies beneath us before anything else. If your theory turns out to be true, it would be dangerous to split our forces, because the owner — if we can call it that — might take advantage of the moment to act."
Freya nodded. Naïa’s words were full of good sense.
"True. And on top of that, we can’t send Mei alone into human lands." She glanced at the one in question, who was already playing off to the side with Laïa — if you could even call it playing. "She wouldn’t really manage on her own."
Aria carried on.
"And as for me, I can’t leave as long as the matter below isn’t settled."
Freya and Naïa nodded, then Freya went on.
"I could go with Mei while you handle the world below. But in that case, I’d have to put the dungeon’s progress on hold, and if I’m gone several days, the mana will end up capping at a thousand. Which would slow our ascent far too much."
Aria seemed to weigh it all for a moment, then made the call.
"Then it’s settled. I’ll go investigate the world below myself. But before that, we’ll expand the entrance labyrinth, and you’ll all lay your traps, to secure your safety as much as possible."
Freya nearly countered that it was surely excessive, that after all they already had Mei and everything else to defend themselves. She didn’t. The memory of last time, of her own recklessness, was still too fresh.
Better to do as she says, just in case. And if it can ease her mind a little, it won’t hurt anyone.
Honestly, Freya... stop being so reckless.
She reined in her impulses and clapped her hands.
"Right! Once the traps are laid and the labyrinth’s expanded tomorrow, you’ll set off for the world below. On top of that, with your expedition down there, it’ll give us the time to build up our stock of magic weapons for human territory in the meantime!"
A small smile came to her lips, and with it, a mantra she hadn’t recited in a long while.
One thing at a time, Freya.
"That concludes our very first strategic council!"
Aria applauded, joined by Naïa, and even the others, off in the distance, took it up in turn.
With the council dissolved, everyone scattered to their own affairs. Freya stretched at length, then remembered she too had work on her plate.
"I’m heading out to hunt and put together some reserves. Anyone want to come?"
Laïa’s hand shot into the air before she’d even finished her sentence.
"Me! Me! Me! Pick me!"
"Anyone?" Freya repeated, her gaze sweeping pointedly around the room, everywhere but on Laïa.
"Me! Pick me! Me, me!"
"Right. Nobody, then." she let out with a laugh, already turning to leave, while Laïa clung to her sleeve with puffed-out cheeks and fell into step behind her, undeterred.
I’m glad they get along, and that the girls are doing better since losing their mother. Laïa especially seems to be opening up more and more.
"Good luck, girls~~" she called out, watching them head off toward the exit, Aria leading her little troop.
Then Freya’s gaze lingered a moment on Naïa, who had hung back.
She’s starting to find her place too, in her own way. I just hope she’ll get to bloom as much as her little sister.
It was at that moment that the Worker Mycofoxes came to fetch her, tugging at the hem of her jacket with insistent little "Kyu"s.
She understood at once what it meant. The building sites were finished, and her workers, visibly proud of the job done, were determined to show her without delay. Amused, she let herself be led through the freshly dug corridors.
The slime farm was the first stop. A vast, damp cavern where basins had been hollowed straight out of the rock, still empty for now, awaiting their future gooey residents.
"System, summon the Breeder Mycofox, please."
The little fox materialized at the bottom of a basin. He was a touch rounder and more waddling than the others, with thick, tufted fur, almost woolly, and a placid gaze under heavy lids. He blinked, then trotted over to her feet to sniff the hem of her jacket.
"Aww, you look just like a little sheep. That works out nicely, for someone about to mind a flock." She bent down to scratch his head. "Welcome, Nijūgo."
From there, her guides drew her toward the magic plant greenhouse, far brighter, where phosphorescent veins ran across the ceiling in place of a sun, above plots of turned earth that waited only for their seeds.
"The Gardener, now."
This one appeared right in the middle of a plot. His fur leaned toward moss green, dappled with paler little spots like petals, and a tiny green sprout poked up between his two ears in place of a mushroom. He gave a sudden shake, flinging dirt everywhere, before lifting a sheepish look toward her.
"Nijūroku, it’ll be." Freya burst out laughing at the little sprout jutting from between his ears. "And you, already with your little flower on your head, you’ll pamper this garden for me, won’t you?"
The path continued to the slaughterhouse, decidedly more austere. A room tiled in smooth stone, made to be hosed down, with nothing welcoming about it. And yet, the Mycofox waiting there was endearing all the same.
"And the Butcher."
He was bulkier and stockier than the soldiers, his fur a dark slate grey, with half-closed eyes and a weary crease at the corner of his muzzle that gave him the air of an old grump.
"Well now." She crouched in front of him, amused by his sullen look.
The fox held her gaze without blinking, jaded.
"...Nijūnana. We’re going to get along just fine, I can tell."
That left the last room, the alchemy workshop, by far the strangest of the four. Cluttered with alembics and empty vials, its shelves carved straight into the rock, with a smell of herbs and sulfur already hanging in the air.
"And the Alchemist, to finish."
The last fox appeared on the workbench, in the middle of his vials. His fur was a dull, pale violet, ruffled every which way as though he’d already weathered an explosion or two, and his big eyes shone with an almost unsettling curiosity. He set about sniffing each vial one by one, with quick little movements of his head.
"You, you already worry me." She watched him sniff a vial a little too closely. "Nijūhachi. Please, don’t blow up my dungeon."
The tour done, she made her way back up to the upper floor, spirits light, rather pleased with the little family growing larger by the day beneath her feet.
It was as she arrived in the Heart chamber that a steady clinking caught her attention. She turned her head, and came upon Mei, training Naïa. In silence, as always, but with a sureness in every movement that betrayed nothing short of undeniable skill with a blade.
Intrigued, Freya came closer.
"But why not ask Aria instead? She must know the highest sword techniques in this world, no?"
Naïa’s face fell all at once, her gaze darkening.
"Apparently, I’m rubbish. Well, my talent for the sword is, to quote her words. Even in a hundred lifetimes, I wouldn’t have enough to become any good."
I see... Blunt as ever, Aria. Except when it comes to me, of course.
"Maybe find another field, then?"
Naïa’s face closed a little further, her eyes going empty.
"According to Aria, still, I have no gift at all. Not for magic, not for the sword, not for the bow, not for the spear, not for the axe, not for hand-to-hand, not even for the shield or anything else. No talent for combat, nothing, nothing whatsoever, in any form at all."
"Aaah..." Freya stepped closer to her. "You know, you’re not obligated to become strong. What you already do is perfectly fine, and you learn fast. Right now, what we need most is strength, that’s true. But the further we go into my plan, the more it’s clever people who’ll become the key to it."
A glimmer of hope resurfaced in Naïa’s eyes.
"So don’t worry too much, all right? Move at your own pace, and one day you’ll outrank all those piles of muscle."
She leaned in toward her, brought a hand to her mouth, and whispered in her ear:
"Like your sister, or Mei."
Naïa let out a small laugh, timid but sincere, and a soft smile came to light up her face.
And just as she was savoring that moment of closeness to the fullest, a notification opened before her eyes, and its very first line set the tone.
[ Misfortune has befallen the Dungeon Lords. ]
[ For the first time, one of your number has fallen. ]
[ That said... congratulations! For the death of the first Dungeon Lord has triggered a brand-new event quest! ]
[ Quest — Dungeon Conquest: seize a vacant dungeon and annex it to your own! ]
[ Reward: Inter-Dungeon Teleportation Magic. ]
[ Mana bless the Dungeon Lords. ]
Freya couldn’t hold back an outcry at what she’d just read, shouting across the chamber while still standing face to face with Naïa, who flinched violently.
"WHAT?! WHAT?! What the hell is this now?!"
Naïa asked something in the background, but Freya could no longer hear her. Hand at her chin, she’d begun pacing the Heart chamber with feverish steps, her brain shooting off in every direction at once.
So everything I believed up until now was wrong? The system doesn’t want the Dungeon Lords forming even the slightest common front to conquer the world?
She paced in circles, unable to stop.
But then, what’s the point of this system? Isn’t it the conquest of the world? Maybe the generation of mana, of which it takes a share? That would explain why it wants us to reclaim the ownerless dungeons...
She shook her head. It didn’t add up.
No, it doesn’t hold together. If they’re capable of granting us a passive generation that grows with every level of the Heart, then it must not really interest them. So what is it? What’s their goal in this event? What’s the logic behind all of it?
Then a more down-to-earth question broke her spiral.
And by the way... who died?
As if to check, she opened her Overlord menu.
[ Menu of the Overlord of Greed ]
[ Members: 361 ]
[ Management ]
[ Private Faction Chat ]
The member count had dropped. Freya drew the only possible conclusion.
So it really is someone from my faction... In a way, I’m the one who pushed them toward death.
Yet she felt no remorse. She already intended to kill them all by her own hand one day, so the only regret that came to her was that this particular dead one would never bring her mana again. A little disappointed by that detail, she moved past it and returned to her thoughts.
And then the most important thing dawned on her.
This event quest was in no way truly meant to recover the fallen Dungeon Lord’s dungeon. Across the entire world, the task would have been far too arduous for that.
Freya’s gaze turned cold as she untangled the intentions hidden behind the quest.
It’s meant to spark open war among the Dungeon Lords.
From now on, none of them would be able to trust another. Each would set about concealing their own dungeon from the rest, while scheming to seize theirs.
The trap was magnificent. And it had just snapped shut on every last one of them at once.